When a hot new group comes on the scene with a big hit it’s very easy to think they will be around for a long while. This is especially so if, like the groups I feature today, they have something unique about them. But, one hit single and some cool style is not always enough to set the stage for a long and successful music career.

The music business is complicated and filled with roadblocks. Record companies can make or break an artist by doing a good job of promoting or a bad job. There are internal conflicts within groups. And, there is a fickle public that can love an artist today and forget them tomorrow.

Considering all of that it is truly amazing when a group can form and keep it together long enough to even sign a record deal, much less actually release an album. And, having a hit single is like winning the lottery, it’s so rare. So, while sometimes one hit wonders are the butt of jokes, they should be applauded for doing what millions try and fail to do. This is what makes one hit wonderdom so interesting.

Today’s Flashback Friday will feature two groups from 1992 who became one hit wonders.

Joe Public was a band from Buffalo, New York. It consisted of lead singer and bass guitarist Kevin Scott, keyboardist and guitarist Jake Carter, percussionist and drummer Dwight “Mr. Dew” Wyatt and lead guitarist Joe “J.R.” Sayles.

They are best known for their one and only hit single “Live and Learn,” from their January 1992 self-titled album. That song reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

(Safe for work/ There is a 20 sec commercial before the video)

House of Pain was a (mostly) Irish-American hip hop group consisting of Everlast, Danny Boy and DJ Lethal. In July 1992 they released their self-titled first album. That album contained their one and only legitimate hit, “Jump Around”. That song peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. None of their other singles from that album or any other came close to the success of that song.

(Not safe for work)

Do you remember these groups? Did you know they were one hit wonders? Did you jam to these songs?